The Sacramento Bee reports (http://bit.ly/1d4HnOt ) that calling it a gold rush might be a stretch, but unusually low rivers are opening up areas of Placer County that haven’t been touched by man in decades, if not over a century.

James Hutchings, Sacramento chapter president of the Gold Prospectors Association of America, tells the newspaper that flakes — possibly even nuggets — that normally would be submerged might be available.

Over the weekend, truck driver Michael Albin came away with a gold chip in his pan about one-fourth the size of a pea.